Ann Killion: OK, I get it -- Kaepernick is a budding star

Published 8:19 pm, Saturday, January 26, 2013

I knew that I needed some help for this column. So I turned to one of San Francisco's great chefs -- my friend Roland Passot of La Folie -- for assistance.

He suggests an overnight marinade in two bottles of red wine and herbs, followed by braising for 50 minutes in a pressure cooker.

That should make my meal of crow more palatable.

It's time for me to eat crow on the topic of Colin Kaepernick. I doubted the midseason move to the untested quarterback, and I was wrong.

The term "eat crow" is believed to have originated in the mid-1800s. The gist is that the stringy, scavenger bird would be hard to swallow, in the same way that it can be hard to admit to being wrong.

But, in truth, even without Roland's recipe -- a twist on classic coq au vin -- this is a pretty easy meal to get down. Kaepernick has been dazzling to watch and has taken his team to the Super Bowl. And he sent the media fifteen pizzas last week, though I swear this mea culpa was planned long before that. What's not tasty about any of that?

I never doubted that Kaepernick would be the 49ers quarterback of the future, not since the first time I sat down for a long interview with him outside the weight room at San Jose State two months after he was drafted, when the players were locked out. Quarterback guru Jim Harbaugh had handpicked Kaepernick, trading up to get him. The young man was determined and his future seemed bright.

But I didn't expect the future to arrive in the tenth game of this season, not with Alex Smith playing better than he ever had in his career and not with a veteran group poised for a Super Bowl run. I didn't predict that Kaepernick would perform the way he did.

And, in fairness to me, neither did many other people. Including those who watched Kaepernick every day in practice.

"I could stand up here and say I knew it all the time," said offensive coordinator Greg Roman last week. "But that's not the case at all. You never quite know until somebody goes out and shows it on the field."

Kaepernick showed it on the field, against Chicago and at New Orleans and, most definitely, in New England. But he also had enough novice wobbles, particularly on the road in Seattle, to keep doubt alive heading into the playoffs.

How would he react to playoff pressure? How would he handle heightened expectations? How would he respond to his first playoff mistake?

Uh, brilliantly. That's all.

But my concerns weren't just about how things would play out on the field. They were mainly about how things would play out inside the 49ers locker room with the quarterback switch. Smith had been through a lot with the core group of veterans and they felt loyal to him, especially when he was performing so well. I covered a divided 49ers locker room in the early 1990s, and I knew firsthand how damaging the whispers and sideways glances could be.

I've been told that a few of the veteran players went directly to Harbaugh to express their concerns about Smith losing his job. When asked if he talked to his coach, tackle Joe Staley said, "I was kind of vocal with my feelings initially. It's all well-documented."

I wasn't alone in my concern about locker room chemistry: many who know a lot more than I do shared the same wariness. Virtually every former NFL player to weigh in on the matter expressed similar thoughts.

"It could have been a real problem," said Steve Young, from Greenwich, Conn., who knows firsthand about divided loyalties. "It was a big deal. It should not be underestimated."

I've been called the Queen of Team Alex by the members of Team Colin, for my doubting position. I will concede that the 49ers very well might not be heading to New Orleans for Super Bowl XLVII if Smith is still the starting quarterback. Yes, Smith got the team to the NFC Championship game last season, but I'm not sure he could have rallied the 49ers from a 17-point deficit on the road. Still, it's really impossible to make an educated guess because the 49ers are running such a different offensive system.

However, I'm pretty confident that the 49ers are not heading to the Super Bowl if it wasn't for Smith's classy and professional demeanor during this wrenching transition. Just as Smith is effusive in his praise of Kaepernick, Kaepernick is a member of the Smith fan club. He is appreciative of how his predecessor has handled the situation.

"It means a lot," Kaepernick said. "I think it really shows his character and the kind of man he is. He's helped me through everything, from week one `til now."

Thanks to the way both young men have handled things, there's no Team Alex or Team Colin, just Team 49ers.

The awkward locker room situation was averted. The young quarterback has conquered every hurdle. There's no reason to think he's going to freeze on the Super Bowl stage, no cause to think the opposing quarterback has any psychological advantage.

Add some bacon, pearl onions and mushrooms and the meal actually isn't bad at all.